3 Black Friday Sales Tips for Photographers

We’re less than two months away from Black Friday. Are you ready for the biggest sale day of the year? If not, or if you want a better marketing strategy so you can make more money, this blog post is for you. I’m dishing out three Black Friday sales tips for photographers that I — as well as my coaching clients — use to boost sales! 

Plan your Black Friday strategy ahead of time

To have a successful Black Friday sale as a boudoir photographer, or honestly, any photographer, you have to plan your strategy properly.

Here’s what you need to outline:

• Exactly what your clients get during your sale
• How much it costs
• When they can book you for a session
• The fine print, like a minimum purchase amount

When I set up my Black Friday sale, for example, I offer clients a $99 fee for a one-hour session, as well as a $150 print credit. I restrict these bookings to March and April when my sales are a bit slower. Plus, I require a $400 minimum purchase. 

These numbers were chosen for a purpose. I’ve tried other numbers besides the $99 session fee–such as $79 and even $129. The $99 has been proven to convert over and over again.

You might be worried that if you make your sale too enticing, you’ll bring in clients who are only looking to score a good deal. I get it, but trust me, you won’t! My sales have always brought me wonderful clients who never lowered my sales average. They won’t lower yours either if you plan your sale correctly ahead of time.

Automate as much as you can

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, so for many people, it’s a time to spend with loved ones. No one wants to be sitting at their computer unless they’re shopping Black Friday deals themselves! 

Even if you’re not a Black Friday shopper, it’s nice to be able to take it easy on that day. You can do that by automating what you can for your own sale. Set everything up so that clients can book themselves.

Acuity is what I use for appointment scheduling, but you don’t have to use this particular software. There are lots of options out there. Whichever you pick, make sure your software lets clients:

• Choose their own date immediately
• Use a coupon code
• Sign the contract when booking
• Book easily

When you automate this part of your sale, it frees up a ton of your time and prevents busy work from piling up over the holiday weekend. So that when Cyber Monday rolls around, you can hop on your computer and get to work as usual — instead of dealing with tons of inquiries and booking requests.

Pay attention to your year-round marketing strategy

This is the ultimate secret to how I’ve had successful Black Friday sales as a photographer year after year: I nurture my clients all year long through email marketing. 

Let’s run through the numbers of how this works:

• Every single week of the year, without fail, my subscribers get an email from me.
• I send about 60 total emails a year. I ask them to buy in 8 emails out of 60. That’s just 13%!
• The other 52 emails are full of helpful tips, free resources, testimonials, stories, and so on. These are emails that they want to open.
• When sale emails land in their inbox, they’re happy to open them and check them out. They’re already used to opening my other emails! 

MY BLACK FRIDAY EMAIL SEQUENCE

What exactly do I include in my Black Friday sales emails? Here’s the sequence:

• A teaser email 2 weeks before hinting that the sale is coming
• A “sale begins” email the morning of
• A second-day reminder email
• A third-day reminder email that the sale ends in 24 hours
• A last-day reminder email

Your email sequence can be longer if you like, but you can start with this basic sequence and customize it for your own audience!

Most sessions I book in general come directly from my email list. And that’s because I’m playing the long game, nurturing my subscribers with weekly emails, priming them to buy when sales start. That’s a better strategy than going radio silent all year and then popping up out of nowhere during the holidays, promoting a sale. 

Set up your Black Friday sale strategy now!

Black Friday is approaching fast, but you still have time to plan a successful sale and fill your calendar with bookings!

Map out your strategy ahead of time, automate what you can, and check in on your year-round email marketing strategy. That should be doing most of the heavy lifting and relationship-building with your clients for you, so that they’re ready to buy when your sale begins.

If you liked these Black Friday sales tips for photographers, I have a resource in my shop for you. The TLC Annual Sale Bundle will help you follow the steps I outlined above to book out your slow season! This bundle includes email swipe files, blog swipe files, and other goodies to help you sell out your sales.